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How can God explain himself in terms humans would understand?

Just_me_Mike

Just_me_Mike

Well-Known Member
Assuming the following about God:
  • God is eternal
  • God is perfect
  • Good is good
  • God created everything we will ever know
I bring this up, because I was thinking how would a God convince us that God was perfect, eternal, and good, if we don't have a reference to judge what each of those things means.

In other words, God creates all of us, but as creations we are not capable of knowing who it is that created us, why we were created, or anything about the creator that created us.

Some say, God could have just willed us all to know all of that without going through life, but I still thought the subject was worthy of posting on here.

Any thoughts?
 
Dunemeister

Dunemeister

Well-Known Member
Why incapable? Christian revelation asserts that we can all know God. We have the equipment. We don't know God because there is a spanner in the works that impairs the operation of that equipment. To know some things, we need revelation supported by the activity of the Holy Spirit, and that would be true regardless of the spanner. Here I have such things as trinity and incarnation in mind.
 
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Just_me_Mike

Just_me_Mike

Well-Known Member
Dunemeister said:
He'd have to inform us by revelation supported by miracle and the testimony of reliable eye-witnesses. The concepts you worry about are not really all that difficult. I understand what it means for God to be eternal. Really, what's the puzzle? Same goes for all the other ideas you mention. Children know and understand these things.
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I dunno, the fact we were created with nervous systems let us know it is wrong to touch hot stoves.

What is it that tells us there is a God, and God is eternal, and God is good?
 
Just_me_Mike

Just_me_Mike

Well-Known Member
Dunemeister said:
Why incapable? Christian revelation asserts that we can all know God. We have the equipment. We don't know God because there is a spanner in the works that impairs the operation of that equipment. To know some things, we need revelation supported by the activity of the Holy Spirit, and that would be true regardless of the spanner. Here I have such things as trinity and incarnation in mind.
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What is the spanner, and can you explain more about the term equipment?
 
Caladan

Caladan

Agnostic Pantheist
itwillend said:
Assuming the following about God:
  • God is eternal
  • God is perfect
  • Good is good
  • God created everything we will ever know
Click to expand...

  • You ask too much. personally, I assume non of the above.
I bring this up, because I was thinking how would a God convince us that God was perfect, eternal, and good, if we don't have a reference to judge what each of those things means.
Click to expand...
Maybe we don't have a reference because God is not perfect or all good. its just a nice thought to have.

In other words, God creates all of us, but as creations we are not capable of knowing who it is that created us, why we were created, or anything about the creator that created us.
Click to expand...
I was not 'created', as a single member of a group i'm the result of many eons of biological evolution and natural selection.

Some say, God could have just willed us all to know all of that without going through life, but I still thought the subject was worthy of posting on here.
Click to expand...
There are no answers from above.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
See above ;)
 
Just_me_Mike

Just_me_Mike

Well-Known Member
Caladan said:
You ask too much. personally, I assume non of the above.
Maybe we don't have a reference because God is not perfect or all good. its just a nice thought to have.

I was not 'created', as a single member of a group i'm the result of many eons of biological evolution and natural selection.

There are no answers from above.


See above ;)
Click to expand...
Thank you Caladan... You have crushed my thread, utterly destroyed it, and left it for dead. :D
 
Dunemeister

Dunemeister

Well-Known Member
itwillend said:
I dunno, the fact we were created with nervous systems let us know it is wrong to touch hot stoves.

What is it that tells us there is a God, and God is eternal, and God is good?
Click to expand...

We are created with a capacity for knowing God; theologians call it the sensus divinitatus. Through this sense, we can know quite generally that there is a Creator and that we owe him gratitude and fidelity (i.e., that God is good). Scripture affirms that, although the operation of this sense is hampered by sin, everyone is culpable for not trusting God (taken fairly vaguely) and for violating obvious ethical norms, the source of which is God. We are culpable because, although hampered, its operations are good enough to provide us with at least that amount of knowledge. Romans 1 - 3 tells this story.

Part of the problem, according to Christian revelation at any rate, is that we are mired in sin, a deplorable tendency not to trust God and to seek first our own interests rather than the kingdom of God. As a result, even when our sensus divinitatus delivers us truths about God, we are disinclined to believe them, by and large. In short, there is an affective dimension to knowledge, and we would know a lot about God if it weren't for our lousy attitudes. :)

But of course, there is more to know about God. And even assuming a lack of sin, there are some things we couldn't possibly know. For instance, the trinity isn't a doctrine knowable by pure reason or by anything delivered by our senses. Even the sensus divinitatus can't get us that far. For that, we have to have revelation, which provides us the data, and the instigation of the Holy Spirit, which convinces us of its truth. In short, faith is a cognitive mechanism that supplies us with knowledge of that which we couldn't otherwise know.
 
TashaN

TashaN

Veteran Member
Premium Member
itwillend said:
In other words, God creates all of us, but as creations we are not capable of knowing who it is that created us, why we were created, or anything about the creator that created us.
Click to expand...

All the answers to these questions are in the Quran. Why don't you give it a shot?
 
enchanted_one1975

enchanted_one1975

Resident Lycanthrope
itwillend said:
Assuming the following about God:
  • God is eternal
  • God is perfect
  • Good is good
  • God created everything we will ever know
I bring this up, because I was thinking how would a God convince us that God was perfect, eternal, and good, if we don't have a reference to judge what each of those things means.

In other words, God creates all of us, but as creations we are not capable of knowing who it is that created us, why we were created, or anything about the creator that created us.

Some say, God could have just willed us all to know all of that without going through life, but I still thought the subject was worthy of posting on here.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
He is not the only God and He is a jealous God. Both of these are stated in the bible. He is giving you hints at, yet not directly telling you, the whole truth. Oh, and shouldn't this be in one of the religious discussion sections instead of general?
 
N

Nothing

NONE
There is no need to assume that God is perfect, eternal, good and creator of everything we will ever know, itwillend. This is not an assumption, this is Truth. Truth requires no references, judgments nor does it need to be defined. IT JUST IS! Unchanging and eternal.
Whatever you believe God to be or not to be, whatever is your past or may be your future, whatever you have acquired or lost, there is ONLY NOW, and NOW is ETERNAL! When you truly KNOW that only the moment exists, then you know PERFECTION. Total peace within can only be achieved by what is GOOD, which has nothing to do with right and wrong. When we know that what we CREATE always comes THROUGH us and not FROM us. When we KNOW this, then we KNOW God.
 
zenzero

zenzero

Its only a Label
Friend itwillend,

How can God explain himself in terms humans would understand?
Click to expand...

Well he hires interpretors like Jesus, Bufddha, mahavir, Gurdjieff, Osho to do his explaining on his behalf as otherwise it shows his *ego* by beating his own bush*.

Love & rgds
 
cardero

cardero

Citizen Mod
How can God explain himself in terms humans would understand?

The first thing GOD can do is relate directly to one in a language that the human can understand. If one needs a translator,
a de-coder ring, a secretary, an interpreter or a mediator, the relationship and the understanding that one is seeking will probably be severly biased.
 
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